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Na(t)ive Orthographies And LanguageEndangerment: Two Case Studies From SiberiaK. David HarrisonSwarthmore College, dharris2@swarthmore.edu

G. D. S. Anderson

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Recommended CitationK. David Harrison and G. D. S. Anderson. (2006). "Na(t)ive Orthographies And Language Endangerment: Two Case Studies FromSiberia". Linguistic Discovery. Volume 4, Issue 1.http://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-linguistics/204

Na(t)ive Orthographies and Language Endangerment: Two Case Studies from Siberia

K. David Harrison*† & Gregory Anderson†

*Swarthmore College & †MPI Leipzig

doi: 10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.304

url: http://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/1/article/304

Volume 4Issue 12006

Linguistic DiscoveryPublished by the Dartmouth College Library

Copyright to this article is held by the authors.ISSN 1537-0852

linguistic-discovery.dartmouth.edu

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Na(t)ive Orthographies and language endangerment

Two case studies from Siberia

(from the poster presented at LSA 2005)

K. David Harrison*† & Gregory Anderson†

*Swarthmore College & †MPI Leipzig

1 Introduction

In this poster, we present findings on the invention and use of naïve (native) orthographies

among two vanishing minority groups of central Siberia, the Ös (also called Middle Chulym) and

the Tofa. Despite small numbers of speakers, both of these moribund languages have recently

acquired native literary and orthographic traditions: one introduced from above, by linguists, and

another invented by a member of the speech community. We documented patterns of use and

adaptation of these two systems, as well as attitudes expressed by towards them by individuals.

Specific developments in the conventional use of graphemes shed light on the

psychological reality of phonemes and phonological and prosodic processes. Attitudes towards

new writing systems as well as their uses help to elucidate the politics of literacy.

1.1 History and demography

Unlike the vast majority of indigenous minority languages of the former Soviet Union, neither

Tofa [kim] nor Ös [clw] were ever officially committed to writing in a state-sanctioned bilingual

program. Instead they suffered, to varying degrees, the consequences of open hostility from the

state. Despite adverse conditions, both communities have shown a nascent indigenous literary

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tradition and native attempts to codify the once active oral literary tradition before it is lost

altogether.

Figure 1a: Historical map with locations of Ös and Tofa indicated. Map from The Cyclopaedia or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature by Abraham Rees, 1820, Courtesy of the University of Texas

Libraries, University of Texas at Austin

Figure 1b: Modern schematic map for comparison.

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2 Tofa

The Tofa live in three remote villages in east-central Siberia, Irkutsk region. They are

subsistence hunter-gatherers and reindeer herders in the eastern Sayan mountains of Siberia.

Although the Tofa number around 600 persons, only 35 still speak the Tofa language.

Figures 2 and 3: Tofa consultants Marta Kongaraeva (above) and her son (below) Sergei Kangaraev.

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2.1 Official orthography

While the Tofa never received an orthography from the Soviet state, they were presented one in

1989 from a linguist, V. I. Rassadin, who married a member of the community but lived

permanently outside it. It was based on Cyrillic and included a total of nine new letters lacking in

the Russian form of the script.

Figure 4: ABC book with ‘official’ Tofa orthography

Created with virtually no native input, the script was also linguistically unsound, encoding many

sub-phonemic distinctions.

2.2 “Too many letters”

Although there were 3 storybooks (e.g., Rassadin and Shibkeev 1989) and a Russian-Tofa

dictionary (Rassadin 1995) published with the script, it never gained many users; the community

rejected it as too complex and cumbersome. Speakers complained that it had “too many letters.”

In our 2001 survey of the Tofa-speaking community, we found this orthography actively used by

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only a single person, a semi-speaker who was charged with conducting basic vocabulary lessons

for local schoolchildren.

2.3 Native modified writing

However, for the last decade or so, accomplished Tofa storytellers and others literate in Russian

have attempted a variety of independent, though not necessarily systematic, ‘naïve’ orthographic

to simplify and rationalize Tofa letters, adopting new conventions that make sense for Tofa.

Figure 5: “He sat down by the riverbank and began calling out that girl’s name.” (Svetlana Araktaeva, 2002)

2.4 Phonological decisions

One such system, that of Svetlana Araktaeva, is shown in figure 5. In this sample, contrastive

vowel length is ignored, front vowels are rendered as palatal consonant + vowel, and the Russian

‘hard’ sign <Ъ>, which has no meaning for Tofa, is re-utilized to indicate low pitch on a

preceding vowel. Vowel harmony, though highly variable, is shown in writing.

2.5 Morphosyntax

Araktaeva’s writing also sheds light on perception of word boundaries and the structure of serial

verbs. In the writing sample shown here, she conflates three serial verbs into a single written

word, indicating perhaps an ongoing process of univerbation.

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(3) kiʃkɪrɪpturarbolɡan

kiʃkɪr-ɪp tur-ar bol-ɡan

call.out-CV AUX-PF COP-PAST

(he) kept standing and calling out

�

Figure 6: Photograph of Tofa children illustrating “Tofa Tales.”

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Figure 7: An annotated screen shot of Konstantin Mukhaev telling a Tofa story.

3. Ös

The Ös people of Central Siberia, also called ‘Middle Chulym’, are traditional hunter-gatherers

& fishermen living in the Tomsk region of central Siberia. The Ös tribe has 726 members, but

the language is spoken by fewer than 40 people scattered across seven villages.

Figure 8: Ös consultant Vasillij Gabov describes how he invented his own writing system.

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There has never been an attempt to devise an orthography for Ös, in part due to the open hostility

directed toward the people from the Russian state: writing is Ös was forbidden and the language

repressed. For a variety of socio-political reasons, the Ös were dropped from the census as a

separate ethnic group in 1959, and incorrectly lumped together with other ethnic groups. Official

re-recognition happened only in 1998, and the Ös have seen few tangible results.

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3.1 Ös writing invented, then abandoned.

Despite the lack of an official orthography for Ös, one member of the community, Vasillij

Gabov, devised a remarkably ingenious Russian-based orthography to render this phonetically

quite different language. In 2003, Gabov told us how he had discarded his book and abandoned

writing after being ridiculed by a Russian member of the community (1-26).

Figure 9: Screenshot of Gabov’s hand writing Ös

(1) men tayɣa-da tʃejit bol-ɣa-m��

I taiga-LOC young be-PST-1

‘When I was young out in the taiga’

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�

(2) tajɣa-da siree tʃør-ej-m��

taiga-LOC always go-ASP-1

‘I always used to go about in the taiga’

(3) no anda meeŋ qaɣas bol-ɣan�

(R)and there 1:GEN paper be-PST

‘And there I had some paper’

�

(4) men ærtæn jesli bar-za-m aaliʃ-ti-ige��

I morning (R)if go-COND-1 moose-VSF-INF

‘In the morning if I would go moose hunting,’

(5) no nøøn[e] bol-za tav-arɣa iir-ge kæl-ze-m��

(R)and thing be-COND find-INF evening-DAT come-COND-1

‘And if anything happened, when I returned in the evening’

(6) tygæde ʃija-a-m po qaɣas-qa ʃija-t-ɯm nø-ny æt-ke-m��

always write-PST-1 that paper-DAT write-HAB-1 thing-ACC do-PST-1

I would always write, I would write what I did on that paper

�

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(7) ærtæn øs saam andɯn men pajdaq anda ʃi-j� bol-ɣa-m�

morning self (R)self from.there I much there write-CV AUX-PST-1

‘in the morning I myself had written a lot there’

�

�

(8) a po kyd-ys-ke-m qaɣeez-in qazaq kiʒ-ee�

and that show-PRF-PST-1 paper-3:ACC Russian person-DAT

‘and I showed it, the paper, to a Russian person’

(9) a ol ajd-ɯbɯl nø-ny mɯnaar ʃij-ip sal-ɣa-ŋ�

and s/he say-PRES thing-ACC to.here write-CV AUX-PST-2

‘and he said, what’s that thing you have written here?

(10) a men anɯ no aŋdɯn køre-p sal-ɣa-m�

and I it-ACC (R)DISC 3:ABL throw-CV AUX-PST-1

‘So I threw it away’

�

(11) a ʃij-ba-a-m anzon-da��

(R)and write-NEG-PST-1 afterwards-EMPH

‘And since then I haven’t written (anything).’

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(12) men sybyr no tɯŋna-p pa-ɣa-m��

I bad (R)DISC hear-CV AUX-PST-1

‘After I heard that bad thing:’

(13) andɯn sen ʃij-ip-tɯr-zɯŋ sen

from.there you write-CV-EVID-2 you

“What have you written there”

�

(14) tadar til-le qaja ʃij-ik-tɯr��

Chulym language-INS why write-FUT-ASSRTV

Why would (you) write in Chulym?

(15) men andɯn ʃij-ba-a-m�

I 3:ABL write-NEG-PST-1

‘After that I didn’t write (any more)’

(16) anzon køre-p sal-ga-m po qaɣas-tɯ�

afterwards throw-CV AUX-PST-1 that paper-ACC

and threw away that paper.’

�

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(17) men kyt-ys-ke moʒet siler-ge pol-ɣa-m�

I show-PRF-INF (R)maybe you.PL-DAT AUX-PST-1

‘Maybe I would have shown it to you,’

(18) azɯ tʃoɣul qajda tʃat qɯl-ɣan anda køre-p sal-ɣa-m�

or NEG:COP where lie AUX-PST there throw-CV AUX-PST-1

‘But it doesn’t exist anymore; it’s still there where I threw it away.’

(19) æmde ʃij-ar tʃoɣ-um��

now write-P/F NEG-1

‘Now I don’t write’

(20) men siler-ga ajd-ɯrga pol-ga-m anɯ��

I you-DAT tell-INF AUX-PST-1 it:ACC

‘I wanted to tell you this.’

(21) men tygeedi øs til-ni qɯnaa-dɯ-m�

I always Ös language-ACC love-HAB-1

‘I have always loved the Ös language’

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(22) tʃurtta-bɯl-mɯn øs til-ni saad-ɯbɯl-mɯn��

live-PRES-1 Ös language-ACC speak-PRES-1

‘I live, and speak the Ös language’

�

(23) øs til-ni tʃaqʃɯ saad-ɯbɯl-mɯn���

Ös language-ACC beautiful speak-PRES-1

‘I speak the Ös language very well’

(24) ii idʒaa-m bol-gan toʒe ajt-qan-nar�

(R)and mother-1 be-PST (R)also say-PST-PL

‘And my mother also used to say’

(25) ʃto øs-tɯŋ til-ni tadar til-ni saat-arga kerek�

(R)that Ös-GEN language-ACC Ös language-ACC speak-INF NEC

‘That it’s necessary to speak the language of the Ös, the Tatar (Ös) language’

�

(26) qazaq qazaq-tar-ga tadar tadar-lar-ga�

Russian Russian-PL-DAT Ös Ös-PL-DAT

‘Russian is for the Russians and Ös is for the Ös’

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3.2 Phonological decisions

Figure 10 shows an example of Gabov’s orthography. No new symbols were introduced to the

Russian Cyrillic, but script was made to fit Ös. Gabov modified the orthography using novel

combinations. For instance, the Russian ‘soft sign’ <Ь> can be used after the first non-initial

consonant to indicate that all vowels in the word are front. This solution implicitly recognizes

vowel harmony operating across entire word-domains.

Figure 10: “The moose emerged from the water, I brought my boat to shore, grabbed my gun, and...” (Gabov, 2003)

3.3 Linguists’ Contributions

The authors worked with this speaker to revive his orthography and produce a Middle Chulym

storybook. Preliminary studies show this orthography to be easily accessible to other members of

the community. The first Ös book ever published to appear in 2005. It uses Gabov’s orthography

and features stories and illustrations by community members. We field tested it in 2005 and it

got positive reactions from community members, several of whom were able to read it aloud.

We estimate the potential readership is 20-25 persons, but as an item of linguistic prestige, we

expect it will have wider impact.

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Figure 11: Ös children illustrate the storybook: frame from forthcoming film The Last Speakers

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Figure 12: Page of Ös children’s book

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References

various (2006 forthcoming) Ös chomaktary: Middle Chulym Tales. Prepared and translated by

Gregory D. S. Anderson and K. David Harrison, with stories by V. Gabov and I. Skoblin.

Eugene, OR: Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.

Kramer, Seth and Daniel Miller, producers (2006). The Last Speakers. New York, NY:

Ironbound Films.

Rassadin, V. I. and V. N. Shibkeev. 1989. Tofa bukvar. Irkutsk: VSKO.

Rassadin, V. I. 1995. Tofalarsko-russkij russko-tofalarskij slovar’. Irkutsk: VSKO.